LONDON -- Rolls-Royce reported record sales last year despite an average price tag of around $534,000 for its luxury cars and a drop in Chinese demand, with orders stretching into 2023.
The British brand now owned by BMW, said in a statement that it sold 6,021 cars in 2022, a rise of 7.8 percent, up from 5,586 in 2021, which was also a record year.
Rolls-Royce's sales were led by the Americas, with the U.S. remaining its top market with about 35 percent of sales.
In China, the automaker's No. 2 market, coronavirus-related lockdowns led to a "single-digit drop" in sales.
But CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös said in an online presentation that this decrease was offset by growth in other markets.
"Our order book stretches far into 2023 for all models," Müller-Ötvös said. "We have not seen any slowdown in orders."
The CEO told reporters that the growth anticipated for 2023 came despite Rolls-Royce halting sales in Russia, which typically accounted for 250 to 300 units per year, in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine last February.
Müller-Ötvös said the ultraluxury brand's bespoke, customized approach had led to "ever more imaginative, personal and technically demanding" orders from customers.
The Cullinan and Ghost models helped boost demand for the brand, Rolls-Royce said.
